There’s been another sudden change in plans from the UFC regarding Ronda Rousey’s next fight. Originally, the organization was shooting for Ronda Rousey vs Miesha Tate 3 at Cowboys Stadium. But that stadium thing fell apart and the fight was moved to good ol’ reliable Las Vegas. Then all of a sudden Miesha Tate was out of the fight and Holly Holm was in, with very little explanation given to fans or Tate.
And now for the latest change: Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm is being taken off the January 2nd UFC 195 card and moved to the 90,000-seat Eithad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia for UFC 193 on November 14th. Dana White announced the change Friday Night on ESPN Sportscenter, along with the bad news that Melbourne’s original headline fight of Robbie Lawler vs Carlos Condit was off due to a Lawler thumb injury.
That injury is what led to the UFC president calling Rousey and asking if she’d do the promotion a solid. Here’s how that went, as told by White to Yahoo! Sports:
“I swear on my life, I called her today when I thought something might happen and I said to her, ‘Hypothetically speaking, … ‘ ” White said. “She interrupts me and said, ‘I’ll do whatever you need me to do.’ So I laugh and I’m telling her how much I love that attitude and I’m going on and she stops me again and says, ‘Hey, so what is up? What do you need?’ She’s incredible. In 15 years of doing this, I’ve never seen anyone remotely like this woman.”
The UFC plans to try and sell the Eithad Stadium out for this event and break the all time MMA attendance record – currently sitting at 71,000 people for 2002’s PRIDE Shockwave in Japan. The UFC’s highest attendance up until this point? The Georges St Pierre vs Jake Shields fight at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, with 55,724 people.
Rousey vs Holm is main event at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. We'll break all-time attendance record for an MMA event. pic.twitter.com/i6p6hlQ2Ki
— danawhite (@danawhite) August 29, 2015
Also on the UFC 193 card in Australia – a rematch between the Super Samoan Mark Hunt and Bigfoot Silva. Their first match was arguably the best heavyweight fight in UFC history, with Bigfoot edging Hunt out on the judges’ scorecards. That victory was soon overturned though, after Silva tested positive for steroids, and is now listed as a draw because Australian athletic commissions don’t know what they’re doing. But considering fighting in a cage was literally illegal in parts of Australia until a few months ago, you can excuse them for strange decisions like that.
Now we will have to see if Rouseymania has made it down under to the point where the UFC can fill a 90,000 person stadium. If anyone can make that happen, it’s Ronda Rousey.
(Via Yahoo! Sports)
